UBS, UniCredit, Nomura lose battle over EU bond cartel decision
Court upholds regulator’s finding that banks colluded on bond sales, though it reduced some fines
26 March 2025 - 14:15
byFoo Yun Chee
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Brussels — UBS on Wednesday lost an initial court challenge against a €172.4m EU fine regarding a bond cartel after Europe’s second-highest court largely sided with a decision by the trading bloc’s antitrust regulators.
The European Commission said in its 2021 decision, which had imposed a total fine of €371m, that the bond cartel, which included Bank of America, RBS (now known as NatWest), Natixis and WestLB (now known as Portigon), operated from 2007 to 2011.
UniCredit and Nomura’s fines were trimmed in the court decision on Wednesday.
The Luxembourg-based General Court said it “largely confirms the decision of the commission” but also “moderately reduces the amount of the fines imposed on UniCredit and Nomura”.
“Any anticompetitive conduct on the part of an employee is attributable to the undertaking to which he or she belongs. Accordingly, banks are liable for the conduct of their traders,” the judges said.
The EU antitrust decision had said that traders from the banks exchanged information on prices and volumes offered in the run-up to auctions and the prices being shown to their customers or to the market in general via multilateral chat rooms on Bloomberg terminals.
All the banks except for NatWest, which alerted the cartel to the authorities, subsequently challenged the EU decision at the General Court.
Nomura’s €129.6m fine was trimmed to €125.6m and UniCredit’s €69.4m penalty was cut to €65m.
The EU competition watchdog hadn’t fined Bank of America and Natixis because their infringement fell outside the limitation period for imposition of fines, while Portigon’s fine was reduced to zero because it did not have any net turnover in the last business year.
The banks and the commission can appeal only on points of law to the Court of Justice of the EU, Europe’s highest.
European and US regulators have imposed billions of euros in fines on the banking sector over the past two decades for activities that included the rigging of various benchmark indices.
Support our award-winning journalism. The Premium package (digital only) is R30 for the first month and thereafter you pay R129 p/m now ad-free for all subscribers.
UBS, UniCredit, Nomura lose battle over EU bond cartel decision
Court upholds regulator’s finding that banks colluded on bond sales, though it reduced some fines
Brussels — UBS on Wednesday lost an initial court challenge against a €172.4m EU fine regarding a bond cartel after Europe’s second-highest court largely sided with a decision by the trading bloc’s antitrust regulators.
The European Commission said in its 2021 decision, which had imposed a total fine of €371m, that the bond cartel, which included Bank of America, RBS (now known as NatWest), Natixis and WestLB (now known as Portigon), operated from 2007 to 2011.
UniCredit and Nomura’s fines were trimmed in the court decision on Wednesday.
The Luxembourg-based General Court said it “largely confirms the decision of the commission” but also “moderately reduces the amount of the fines imposed on UniCredit and Nomura”.
“Any anticompetitive conduct on the part of an employee is attributable to the undertaking to which he or she belongs. Accordingly, banks are liable for the conduct of their traders,” the judges said.
The EU antitrust decision had said that traders from the banks exchanged information on prices and volumes offered in the run-up to auctions and the prices being shown to their customers or to the market in general via multilateral chat rooms on Bloomberg terminals.
All the banks except for NatWest, which alerted the cartel to the authorities, subsequently challenged the EU decision at the General Court.
Nomura’s €129.6m fine was trimmed to €125.6m and UniCredit’s €69.4m penalty was cut to €65m.
The EU competition watchdog hadn’t fined Bank of America and Natixis because their infringement fell outside the limitation period for imposition of fines, while Portigon’s fine was reduced to zero because it did not have any net turnover in the last business year.
The banks and the commission can appeal only on points of law to the Court of Justice of the EU, Europe’s highest.
European and US regulators have imposed billions of euros in fines on the banking sector over the past two decades for activities that included the rigging of various benchmark indices.
Reuters
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